A study published online in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, used data from a small, prospective study of children and their parents.
Researchers found that reading speed improved by about 50 percent over the course of three years, with the greatest improvements in reading speed with age.
That may not sound like much, but it’s enough to change the way you think about reading, says co-author Jessica Pecorelli, a researcher at the University of Utah.
“When you have these kids reading, you’re thinking more clearly,” she says.
“You’re thinking about what’s important to you, and you’re not thinking about it as a kind of ‘what if?’ thing.
You’re thinking, ‘This is important.'”
Pecoresi also thinks that parents’ expectations about their children’s reading speed could make it harder for them to keep track of how fast they’re reading.
“Parents may feel like they need to speed up their children and they need a certain amount of speed,” she said.
“They may be thinking, I’m going to slow it down, and that will make their kids read a little bit slower.
And they’re not really sure how to do that.”
It’s not just kids.
“Children who are reading in a way that’s not as fast as they would like to read are going to be slower at that speed,” says coauthor Jonathan Cahn, a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business.
“I think there are some kids who are just reading for enjoyment, not for the reading.”
Pecorsi is particularly concerned about the speed of younger children.
“The older kids, it’s like, ‘Oh, I can’t get that far,'” she said, laughing.
“And then they get to be 10, and they say, ‘Well, I’ll get to 15.’
And I’m like, You’re kidding me.
I don’t know.”
PECORELLI AND CABER The study involved about 200 children ages 7 to 14.
The children were enrolled in the Utah Reading and Writing Project (UWRPP), a statewide reading and writing intervention for disadvantaged children and teens in the state.
The goal of the project is to build a relationship with children in the program, including giving them specific, specific tasks to complete in order to develop literacy skills.
The researchers were able to identify a set of tasks that were most commonly used in the reading intervention, and to use those tasks in the classroom.
In addition to the reading tasks, the researchers also assessed the children’s attention to details.
In the study, they used two tests: the reading speed task and the color and letter recognition task.
“One of the questions we ask is, ‘How well do you read a certain letter?’
And we ask it to kids for three years,” says Pecora.
“If you look at the color recognition, they’re much more good at it.
They’re more consistent, they do a lot of color, they recognize more colors.
That makes sense because kids are not getting that kind of help at that age.
The other thing that we did is ask them to write letters.
We ask them, ‘Are you going to use the letters in a certain way?’
For the color test, the children were given a coloring book, a colored paper, and a marker to write on the page. “
The kids in the intervention were given three months to complete the reading and letter tasks.
For the color test, the children were given a coloring book, a colored paper, and a marker to write on the page.
The study was conducted at the Utah Department of Education’s reading and literacy office.
In order to conduct the study properly, the research team had to have a state-issued, computer-based system.
The research team used the University at Buffalo’s Reading and Learning Technologies (RLT) software, which is open-source and allows parents to easily share their own assessments of their children. “
There are some really hard-to-find parental permission forms on the internet,” Pecori says.
The research team used the University at Buffalo’s Reading and Learning Technologies (RLT) software, which is open-source and allows parents to easily share their own assessments of their children.
Pecoria says that even though the testing was done in the library, the results are very similar to what is possible with a school.
“These are real, valid data that have been captured,” she adds.
“We were able, with a lot less time, to look at this really directly with the kids.
The kids were reading very clearly, they were able.
The learning outcomes were similar.
So it looks like we can do this, and we are making a real difference.”
PECAORELLIS AND CASSELIA ASSOCIATES The Utah Reading Project also has some positive aspects.
For one, the parents were all active participants in the study.
“This is a good outcome for a number of reasons,” says Dr. Jill Casselias, a psychologist at Utah State University and author of the book The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Parenting.
“First, we’re finding